ambient

They were of their time, and should maybe stick to banging out their hits to guys that liked them then, and have the money necessary to buy the tickets. They've never done anything for me at all, same with a lot of bands and artists from that time. I can see why people did like them though, they were different from other bland bands playing then. My aunt and uncle saw them in a small pub in Birmingham. They though them too loud though, and left. The father of a guy I used to play with owned a pub in Birmingham where they played. He was annoyed when they left without tidying up; after having smashed their instruments up. He swept all the debris up and threw it all away.

Just transcribe loads. Use a real book and work out what’s going on, that’s how I did it, and many others. There are methods that people use to teach, we were taught one at uni. They tend to sound what they are though, unmusical methods, lacking artistry. They tend to revolve around arpeggios.

I did a few dep gigs for a blues singer a few years ago. He was well into his 50s, short and very overweight. Imagine my horror when halfway through the encore, he appeared from the rear of the stage totally nude. Not a pretty sight, though surprisingly, the ladies in the audience loved it.

They’re brilliant little monitors. A friend of mine uses a pair live, I bought some after seeing him use them. I did sell mine to buy a pair of the bigger 8040 monitors, but only because they’re what's in the studios at my university.

The Police were an incredible trio. Space is a wonderful thing, why fill it?

It’s not one gig though, is it? It’s cover against future gigs that he can’t make. I’ve never played for any band that hasn’t at times had gigs that have clashed with people’s private lives. They’re organised and have deps that they can call upon. People do have lives outside of bands, especially if the band is amateur, and meant to be fun. People get invited to weddings, birthdays, they have birthdays themselves, their wives or partners have birthdays. They get ill, and they go on holiday. I’m sure he wouldn’t be popular with his wife if he told her they’d have to plan what they do around the band. The one band I play for consists of a group of retired school teachers. The one guy has a caravan in Wales, and daughters in France and Spain. In the summer he goes to his caravan at least once a month, and visits his daughters. Another guy volunteers for a local steam railway, he plays with another band, and goes caravanning. He also spends a month every year in New Zealand visiting his son and daughter in law. The band works around them, theirs friends, they organise deps....one of which is me.

Why can’t you just get a dep?

Parcelforce only insure up to £100 for instruments. It depends on the weight, and dimensions of the parcel when it’s wrapped. Best to use Interparcel or Parcel 2 go. You can add insurance to the delivery price, but check before you pay that there are no exclusions for musical instruments.

My thoughts exactly. You have to consider why you’re playing, is it a job, or for enjoyment? There’s a band I play for, they're all retired. Their regular bassist goes caravanning a lot during the summer months, the keys player has family abroad, so visits them, he also has a caravan in Wales that he goes to. So they have deps to cover as required.

Listen to and transcribe Anthony Jackson, his albums with Hiromi are brilliant. The trio album with Michel Petrucciani is amazing. Don't just cop licks though, analyse what’s being played.

Maybe, I’m away for a few days, I’ll get back to you if I may?

Good news! Is it an iPhone? If yes switch on find my phone from another device.

It’s unfortunate that we only tend to hear bad news stories about companies.

I want to perform some of my sound-based electroacoustic pieces, but in a more improvised way, I don’t just want to hit play and sit back. I was going to buy a control pad, and use it either with Reaper or Logic Pro, then I though about using my iPad. I already use various apps for sound creation. I want to be able to trigger sounds, and fade them in or out. Can anyone suggest a decent app please?

Maybe try wiping your hands and the strings down in between songs?

I love playing vocal lines, it’s nice combining them with chords, or chord notes. It’s good sight reading practice too.

I’m always impressed when people build things like that. God knows what it would have looked like if I’d done it 😁.

Try not to use PayPal. I bought something from Thomann a few weeks ago, I was going to pay by PayPal but their exchange rate was really bad.

Standing in the shadows of Motown is pretty good. It comes, or used to come with a CD. The recorded bass line was panned to the one channel, so you could hear how what you’re seeing should sound. There’s some tricky stuff in there, some complex rhythms. See if you can find transcriptions of walking lines, they’re good to use for practice too, due to the fact that they go off in unexpected directions. I had a great book with loads of jazz lines by people like Scott LaFaro and Paul Chambers transcribed that I used to practice prior to auditioning for uni, I can’t remember what it was called now though. I always found sight reading melody lines was useful, you often get tied notes across bar lines, so it’s good for counting. Hanon the virtuoso pianist is good too.

Not part of your original question, but it’s useful if you can sightread in treble clef too. I’ve been asked a few times to play the head, and been given the part in treble clef.

My mom watches it. I like watching them restore the paintings. I think it odd though, the first thing most people say is how much the item means to them, I’m left wondering, if that’s the case, why has it been kept in the shed for the last 30 years? I wonder how many of the treasured items are subsequently sold.

Sound on sound has one. Have you tried Facebook? I’m in some really good nature and field recording groups on there.

Harmonised scales, chord progressions and intervals. Jazz has a lot of regular chord progressions, a II-V-I is really common. It’s useful to be able to hear and identify them. Just get your real book out, and practice playing through a piece in different keys. Sit down with a lead sheet away from your bass, pick up a pencil and do a harmonic analysis. Write down what’s going on, it’ll help when you’re playing, and help to spontaneously play in a different key. Knowing for instance a II-V-I in G major is Am/D7/Gmaj, In D major it’s Em/A7/Dmaj.